Best marathon: 2:23:57 (2007, St. George). Won the Top of Utah Marathon twice (2003,2004). Won the USATF LDR circuit in Utah in 2006.

Draper Days 5 K 15:37 (2004)

Did not know this until June 2012, but it turned out that I've been running with spina bifida occulta in L-4 vertebra my entire life, which explains the odd looking form, struggles with the top end speed, and the poor running economy (cannot break 16:00 in 5 K without pushing the VO2 max past 75).

Short-Term Running Goals:

Qualify for the US Olympic Trials. With the standard of 2:19 on courses with the elevation drop not exceeding 450 feet this is impossible unless I find an uncanny way to compensate for the L-4 defect with my muscles. But I believe in miracles.

Long-Term Running Goals:

2:08 in the marathon. Become a world-class marathoner. This is impossible unless I find a way to fill the hole in L-4 and make it act healthy either by growing the bone or by inserting something artificial that is as good as the bone without breaking anything important around it. Science does not know how to do that yet, so it will take a miracle. But I believe in miracles.

Personal:

I was born in 1973. Grew up in Moscow, Russia. Started running in 1984 and so far have never missed more than 3 consecutive days. Joined the LDS Church in 1992, and came to Provo, Utah in 1993 to attend BYU. Served an LDS mission from 1994-96 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Got married soon after I got back. My wife Sarah and I are parents of nine children: Benjamin, Jenny, Julia, Joseph, Jacob, William, Stephen, Matthew, Mary, and Bella. We home school our children.

I am a software engineer/computer programmer/hacker whatever you want to call it, and I am currently working for RedX. Aside from the Fast Running Blog, I have another project to create a device that is a good friend for a fast runner. I called it Fast Running Friend.

Favorite Quote:

...if we are to have faith like Enoch and Elijah we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived.

Usual run, 14+ total. Benjamin and I did a quick mile down the canyon. He ran 4:45 running more or less even. I ran 5:17 starting in 75, and then I struggled. I felt like the first quarter was relatively easy, but then I just could not breathe.

Kids ran their usual distances except Joseph who had a cough. I had him run only 2 miles.

SLC Track Club 5 K (3.107 Miles) 00:19:21, Place overall: 18, Place in age division: 4

Easy Miles

Marathon Pace Miles

Threshold Miles

VO2 Max Miles

Total Distance

8.57

0.00

0.00

3.21

11.78

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2016-01-30 09:18:51

Workout Totals: Distance11.789Time1:35:26.50Pace8:05.75

Today our family ran the Winter Series 5 K. The road was convered with snow. We made the mistake of bringing only Crocs to the race hoping that the road will be plowed or that there will be a dry patch. We learned our lesson - all of run slower than we should have.

As we can see from Garekm Riley's and others times, with the right kind of shoe the conditions were quite runnable, as in 10 seconds per mile slower than normal road. Just not in Crocs.

I opened with 5:53 mile during which I was able to find spots with some reasonable traction. But as the race progressed, the traction got worse. I had 9:25 at the turnaround still heading for 18:50 if I could keep the pace. Then I got passed by Sariah, Cristina and a few men. I was able to run with Cristina for a while, but then all of a sudden the traction was worse for a brief moment and she was gone. I ran with Steve Allen up until the kick, but then he could kick and I was already going as fast as the traction would let me. My split at 2 miles was 12:16 (6:23), and then 18:43 at 3 (6:27), and 38 seconds to the finish.

Benjamin had a similar experience, except he slowed down less. His first mile was 5:24, then 8:38 at the turnaround, 11:10 at 2 (5:46), and 6:21 from there to the finish (5:44 pace). So I am guessing he and I had the same problems with traction, except he was more evenly paced effort-wise.

When Benjamin and I finished we ran back. Benjamin met William and finished with him. I met Sarah. She struggled a lot today as she does not run well with low traction.

From the point of view of physics a bouncy runner should do better on ice than a low-hovering one. Forward force comes from friction, and the maximum attainable force of friction is proportional to the ground reaction force, which would be higher for a bouncy runner. Of course, there is another variable - friction coefficient. It is actually not too hard to measure without any special equipment. All you need is some flat surface that you can lean at an arbitrary angle and a level which can be replaced with a smartphone with a functional level app. Put the shoe on the surface, lean it until it starts sliding, when it does, note the grade percent reading of the level or the app. Divide the number by 100, that is your friction coefficient for the shoe against the tested surface. At some point for a physics lesson we should measure the friction coefficient of our shoe collection.

As a side note, the friction coefficient of the shoe affects your running performance only when the forward push is limited by slipping rather than just the muscle power.

When we got home, I ran 5 more miles with Benjamin, 1 with Stephen, and 0.125 with Matthew. It was a snowy slippery run as evidenced by the times.